Sources in the NGO said the camels, whisked out of Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje's constituency Jhalawar, arrived in Sirohi town on Saturday after a six-day journey in 21 trucks that contrasted with their harrowing 1,300km trudge to the southern city.
Their predicament got worse when the Rajasthan government expressed helplessness in getting the animals back from Telangana's Ranga Reddy district, around 150km from Hyderabad, where they had been rescued and kept in the interim custody of the NGO, People For Animals (PFA), Hyderabad.
The camels were eventually sent back last week without any government help. "Their transportation in 21 trucks cost around Rs 14 lakh, which was mainly collected from donations," said Amit Deol, a PFA official in Sirohi town, around 415km from Jaipur.
Deol, whose organisation has adopted the camels, said the money came mostly from the Jain community and others from Rajasthan based in Hyderabad and elsewhere in the south.
But now that the animals are back, the challenge before PFA officials is to nurse them back to health.
Of the 84 camels left, most are famished, some pregnant. Around 10 calves were wounded and found traumatised after their ordeal and the long journey back home in the trucks.
"These camels are terribly tired. Many have suffered injuries after they have fought among themselves in the trucks. One of the female camels, injured and extremely weak, died today. There are three more males who fought among themselves and are critical, with serious injuries to their jaws," Deol said.
The weather didn't seem favourable either for the camels.
"The camels got drenched in the rains on the way. Many are running fever. Also, the climate in the south did not suit the camels, so many of them never really recovered from the long, tiring walk to Hyderabad in the past one-and-half months," Deol said.
In Sirohi, the PFA has arranged for two vets, four helpers and eight caretakers for the camels. It today organised a large treatment camp for the animals.
That's not all. A 32sqkm forested patch nearby has been rented from the forest department so that there is no shortage of fodder for the camels. The forests have an abundance of neem, karaj and khejri trees, whose leaves camels are known to relish. The PFA will have to pay the forest authorities around Rs 3 lakh for the first year, other officials of the NGO said.
According to Deol, around Rs 10 lakh would have to be spent on the upkeep of the camels over the next six months. The PFA hopes to raise this money from another round of donations. Once the camels get fit, they will be given away to local camel-keepers willing to take care of them, Deol added.
Last month, when Rajasthan animal husbandry minister Prabhu Lal Saini was told about the plight of the camels in Hyderabad, he had said that "bringing them back, especially giving them space, and taking action against the perpetrators would be difficult".
Camel slaughter is banned in Rajasthan, so the animals were whisked out of the state secretly at the height of summer, with the smugglers claiming they were being taken for grazing because of shortage of pasture land in the desert state.
The Rajasthan Camel (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation of Temporary Migration or Export) Act bans slaughter, trade and unauthorised transportation of camels. Killing camels can land the offender in jail for up to five years.
This was not the first time that camels - domesticated in Rajasthan for their milk and for carrying goods and sometimes used to even till the fields - were intercepted in another state. A PFA official in Telangana said 63 camels had been sent back home last year.
Sources said Bangalore police had intercepted five camels being smuggled out for slaughter a few months ago. "They were so sick that four of them died," Kumar said. Camel meat available outside the state costs around Rs 280 a kilo.
[Source: The Telegraph, Calcutta, August 02, 2016,Tuesday]
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